Outraged Homeowners Begin Legal Challenge Against FERC’s Approval of PennEast Pipeline
Outraged Homeowners Begin Legal Challenge Against FERC’s Approval of PennEast Pipeline
Stockton, NJ (February 20, 2018) – Homeowners Against Land Taking-PennEast (HALT), whose members include hundreds of directly impacted homeowners, filed its request for rehearing today, laying out the grounds on which it will challenge the certificate that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted to the PennEast Pipeline Co. on January 19, 2018. HALT is focusing on the legal issues that affect landowners the most: FERC’s violations of the Natural Gas Act and the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. These alleged violations enable PennEast to start eminent domain proceedings even though the pipeline may never be built.
“FERC prematurely grants pipeline companies the right to take people’s land by ignoring the limitations that Congress and the Constitution have placed on its powers,” said Anne Marie Garti, an attorney representing HALT. “This abuse of authority has to stop.”
PennEast is using FERC’s conditional certificate to file lawsuits against landowners who refuse to sign easement agreements. Over the past two weeks PennEast has filed more than 180 complaints against them in three federal district courts.
According to homeowner and HALT trustee Jacqueline Evans, “PennEast has been consistently aggressive in trying to get on our land. Now FERC has prematurely granted a certificate so they can take our land for a pipeline we don’t even need.” Ms. Evans, a single mom of 3 and operator of a small certified organic farm, went on to say, “Recently, PennEast sent what read like a very threatening letter saying they would pay us for our land but giving us only a few days to respond whereupon they would then reduce their already low offer by 80%. Those strong-arm tactics have caused PennEast to create distrust and to lose goodwill with property owners in the area.”
PennEast member companies serving the area include New Jersey Resources, South Jersey Industries and UGI Energy Services.
T.C. and Joe Buchanan, residents of Hunterdon County, are fighting to save the land that’s been in their family for over 50 years. “This gas conglomerate would make billions of dollars, while the consumers of New Jersey and the residents along the route would needlessly pay the price,” said the Buchanans. “We are counting on the NJ Department of Environmental Protection and the Delaware River Basin Commission, which still have to review this pipeline, to stop this misguided project.”
Besides private homes being hurt, many small businesses are also threatened, including poultry, produce, and hay farmers, and several orchards.
“PennEast is hauling farmers, homeowners, and others into court to take their land through this unjust use of eminent domain,” said Carla Kelly-Mackey, who owns property in Delaware Township that would be seized by PennEast. “We stand in opposition to this dangerous, damaging and unnecessary fossil fuel pipeline. PennEast pipeline would devastate our preserved farmlands and our waterways. Our livelihood is at stake, as is our water, air, and quality of life.”
All of the townships in New Jersey that are affected by this proposal (Alexandria, Holland, Kingwood, Delaware, West Amwell and Hopewell) have passed resolutions in opposition to it. The reasons why were summed up nicely in a Comcast Newsmaker interview by Lambertville’s mayor, David DelVecchio. “The pipeline threatens the quality of life in our area through [degradation of] water quality, tree removal and potential for flash flooding. We are most concerned about the quality of our drinking water…”
HALT’s legal challenge will show that FERC broke the law by granting a certificate to PennEast before other agencies have made their decisions.
HALT’s request for rehearing can be downloaded by clicking here:
http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20180220-5111
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